Bomb Group

The Eighth Air Force's 381st and the Allied Air Offensive Over Europe

De: Paul Bingley, Mike Peters

Narrado por: David de Vries

In February 1942, a reconnaissance party of US Army Air Force officers arrived in England. Firmly wedded to the doctrine of daylight precision bombing, they believed they could help turn the tide of the war in Europe. In the months that followed, they formed the Eighth Air Force—an organization that grew at an astonishing rate. To accommodate it, almost seventy airfields were hastily built across the eastern counties of England.

At the heart of the Eighth Air Force was its bombardment groups, each equipped with scores of heavily armed, four-engine bombers. These Boeing B-17 Flying Fortresses and Consolidated B-24 Liberators were soon punching through the enemy's defenses to bomb targets vital to its war effort. They were crewed by thousands of young American airmen, most of whom were volunteers.

This is the story of just one "Bomb Group"—the 381st, which crossed the Atlantic in May 1943. Arriving at RAF Ridgewell on the Essex-Suffolk border, its airmen quickly found themselves thrown into the hazardous and attritional air battle raging in the skies over Europe. The 381st's path led from its formation in the Texan desert, to its 297th and final bombing mission deep into the heart of Hitler's Third Reich. This is the remarkable story of one group and the part it played in the strategic bombing campaign of "The Mighty Eighth."

©2022 Paul Bingley and Mike Peters (P)2023 Tantor

Excellent history and narration

This book, at least mentions, every mission and loss that the 381st Bomb Group had during WWII. So you get a real sense of the grinding, never-ending task ahead of them.

There is a fair amount of detail, but you feel like someone is telling you after they come back from a mission, rather than being on the mission yourself. I would have really liked one or two missions to have done a deep-dive on every aspect of what the crew did and how they felt from takeoff to landing. I feel that would have really helped to make the story more immersive. Listen to Vulcan 609 and you'll see what I mean.

I did like the "interludes" which gave insights into specific aspects of being a bomber group and didn't necessarily fit with the chronological tale, so they were a great idea. But again, more details would have been a boon. For example, bombers would take off and take about an hour to form up. Ok, so that makes me think... how did they do that without losing formation or colliding? Come to that, how do you keep your position in formation? I'm guessing that you'd line up the other aircraft with your parts on your own plane, but I don't know for sure. And how does a unit make a 90 degree turn and still keep its formation?

In another book, Hell's Angels, they mention how the ground crew would rotate the propeller a few times before starting the engine, to draw the oil up into the pistons. Oh... so that's why they do that! And so on.

So many of the B-17s would be have issues and then explode but it's not explained why. Maybe it was fire in the fuel tanks but it's not really explained or why there wasn't a solution to this.

David De Vries gives another stellar performance and really makes the entire book even more engaging with how he gives appropriate emphasis on the text.

At 19 hours, this book covers a lot and is definitely worth the time -- I just wish it was even longer!

Great read!!

Narration was very good. Strong story with interesting stats. A good read for any WW 2 enthusiast especially aircraft fans. Boeing B-17 a truly tough bomber .

Reality

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